Russian River to Denali

Russian River Falls

We headed north on June 17th and walked the Russian River (6 miles round trip) to watch the Salmon trying to leap the falls.  Downstream were hundreds of people catching their limit of the spawning fish.   Leaving the crowds behind we spent two days of quiet rest in Hope, Alaska. Now northward, 60 miles around the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet, a silt filled, mud edged bay where the tide was rushing in like a tidal wave.  We enjoyed a walk on the boardwalk at Potter's Marsh south of Anchorage, it's interesting to see the birds nesting here that we have only seen in migration before.
For our 41st wedding anniversary we walked up Coal Mine Creek to alpine and were rewarded with a life bird - an Arctic Warbler.

On the longest day of the year we took the shuttle bus into Denali National Park, where we saw many Caribou like this one that held the bus up for a while, 7 grizzly bears - very blond in this park, moose, a red fox, Dall sheep, and lots of beautiful scenery.  Only had 1 glimpse of the gigantic mountain top of Mt. McKinley (Denali).  After 11 hours and 190 miles on bumpy gravel ride, everyone was exhausted, except us, we were still looking for more.  Today we traveled back in early and alone for as far as we were allowed to go.  We were rewarded with a Wolf coming down the road and a family of Willow Ptarmigan,  chicks looked to be just hatched.  Onto  Fairbanks now.  Ty & Ida